Happy Thanksgiving from The Troy Citizen!
I’m thankful for the service of Mike Amos … plus PLAS cheerleaders … ‘The Reluctant Pilgrim' - a cute heifer photo … Mariah Carey fans ... Farm-City winners … Troy football … and Opal memories.
Mike Amos retires from Alumni Office
Yesterday’s feature story on the late great physical education instructor James “Whitey” Whitman made me think of other local residents who have devoted their adult lives to serving others.
One such Trojan is Mike Amos, who recently retired from a position where he assisted Troy University’s Office of Alumni Affairs for 24 years.
The Troy Messenger’s Josh Boutwell wrote a nice story about Mike in the November 26th edition.
The story makes it clear that Mike has selflessly served Troy University, its athletic program and the city of Troy for his entire adult life.
Excerpts:
“Mike Amos loves Troy University and you can’t ever doubt that,” (Amos) said with a smile. “I love my Lord, love my family and then I love Troy University.”
In the story, Mike said the “best thing to ever happen to Troy” was university’s move to Division I athletics.
“Look at what Troy’s done since we moved to Division I and then to (FBS) in football. You see the growth in the university but you also see the growth in the City of Troy. The City of Troy can take pride in knowing they also walked hand-and-hand with the university in making that move.”
In addition to being the undisputed leading cheerleader for Troy University and its athletic programs, Mike doesn’t apologize for his unbridled pride in his hometown of Troy.
“Troy is my home, it’s where I went to school and it’s where I’m from,” he said in The Messenger article. “So, why not have ultra pride in being who you are and where you’re from,” Amos asked.
“That is very important to me. I am who am I and I’m from where I’m from. Pride in your community probably says the most about me than anything else. “We are Trojans one and all. If I had a tombstone written on my behalf it would say, “He was a Trojan, one and all.’ You can – and should – feel good about your hometown.”
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I’ve also written feature stories about Mike’s service to his hometown. As I noted in a Troy Life article from 2021, Amos displayed this love via the countless hours he worked (at no pay) for Troy Cable.
As I wrote: “It would be interesting, probably impossible, to calculate the hours Mike Amos has spent covering local sporting teams and events. What makes this even more impressive is to think about all the other miles Mike was putting on his car during these decades.
“For starters, he worked for 26 years with the State of Alabama as an economic development and industry recruitment specialist. He commuted every day to Montgomery and worked in a job that required him to travel to every county in the state.
“He also officiated high school and college basketball games for decades.
“As the No. 1 fan of his alma mater, Troy University, he has almost certainly travelled to more cities and stadiums than any other Troy University fan.
“If readers are familiar with the Johnny Cash hit song “I’ve Been Everywhere,” they might wonder if this song is about Mike Amos.
“… Oh yeah, with the support of Troy Cable - Mike also started a morning TV show.
“The Bud and Amos Show” debuted in the mid-90s with co-host Bud Amos. It continued as “Today in L.A” with Mike’s son, Michael, as a long-time co-host. This journalist spent two years in co-host duties as well.
Trojans could watch themselves on Troy Cable …
It was primarily Mike Amos who made sure that the place local residents could “watch themselves” was Troy Cable.
“It was important to me that the events that mattered to people could be seen” Mike told me.
Mike admitted his “ego” was probably boosted by being on TV so much. But this is not why he covered THOUSANDS of local events.
“I want these kids to get the attention they deserve,” he told me. “I want their parents to be able to record these events so they can see themselves years and decades later.”
Two or so years ago, Mike retired from his Friday night play-by-play duties. But before he did, he covered practically every CHHS football game for 35 years. Counting playoff games and pre-season jamborees this would be more than 350 games.
How many student-athletes did Mike interview?
But he did more than cover football games on Friday nights. He also soon started doing brief interviews where he introduced EVERY player and coach on every team in Pike County.
It’s probably no understatement to state that as many as 10,000 former players appeared on TV for the first time in their lives when Mike Amos asked them to give their name, position and class (and threw in what ever ad-libs occurred to him).
For decades Mike made the time to do these pre-season interviews for CHHS, GHS, PCHS, PLAS and Troy University players. And let’s not forget the junior high teams, or the girls teams.
By 1989, Troy Cable, usually with Mike in front of the microphone, was covering parades, festivals, prom lead outs, dance recitals, banquets, award ceremonies, etc.
Mike also helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Troy University athletics by organizing the football team’s annual pre-season raffle party/fund-raiser.
On his Morning show, if a sports team or worthy group needed to raise funds from a Cake Sale/Auction, all they had to do was ask Mike and they got an instant telethon. (Mike usually ended up buying more cakes and pies than any caller.)
Probably a dozen groups/teams held such events on his show every year … for decades … so there’s no telling how much money Mike helped these groups raise.
He did all this only because he wanted to help others. If a group or person was from Troy or Pike County, Mike wanted to help them any way he could.
Today is the perfect day to reflect on the contributions to our community made by wonderful citizens like Mike Amos and the late Coach Whitman … and say, “Thank you.”
… Now … A hodgepodge of news nuggets and great photos!
‘The Reluctant Pilgrim’ ...
My vote for Facebook Photo of the Year is this picture of the granddaughter of Troy’s Cathy and Jerry Beckett. Cathy re-posts this archived photo of Gigi Beckett every year. She titled the photo ‘The Reluctant Pilgrim.”
Gigi, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Beckett, was taken before she attended a school Thanksgiving Play in Sugarland, Texas years ago. Cathy now re-posts the photo every year … to rave reviews as we all remember children or grandchildren who probably struck similar poses before big events that might not have always left these children enthusiastic. (I’m sure Cathy’s granddaughter had a great time at her performance!).
In the Comment section, Alice Dunkin replied: “This makes me soo happy when I see her … Just love it! … This is exactly how I feel sometimes having to cook!”
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Pike Liberal Arts cheerleaders named Best in Alabama in 2A classification
I should have already run something on this huge piece of news. On November 20th, the Pike Liberal Arts varsity cheerleaders were crowned AHSAA 2A State Champs at a competition held in Birmingham.
The Patriots were crowned best in the state in their athletic classification in the “Gameday” and “Traditional” categories.
The school, which only joined the AHSAA a couple of years ago, has already won two state titles. The squad, coached by Katie Scott, has also qualified for the UCA Nationals.
Before joining the AHSAA, the Pike cheerleaders routinely won state titles in the independent school association and is a regular at national competitions hosted by organizations like the UCA in exciting destinations like Disney World and Nashville.
Congratulations, PLAS cheerleaders! (I will add the names of these young ladies as quickly as I receive them and will produce my own feature story with more photos in the near future.)
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Yep, you don’t do this every day …
I peruse Facebook looking for cute or interesting “stand-alone” or “filler photos” and this one definitely qualifies.
Debra Davis, who was once a journalist like me (before going to work for Alfa), has deep Pike County roots and knows a tremendous amount about agriculture, including raising cows. She knows this because this is part of her daily life.
Debra posted this photo the other day with the following caption info:
“After a difficult delivery (Tuesday), the mama cow wasn’t interested in taking care of this baby girl. So this little heifer is off to a new home where a nurse cow will give her all the milk she needs to grow up strong and healthy.”
A friend of Debra’s asked: “Please tell me ya’ll got a weight on this calf …”
Replied Debra: “We didn’t. And she was a big girl - but I could pick her up so I figure she was 70 pounds or less since 70 is about my max lift!”
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Sticking with agriculture topics …
Annual Farm-City Banquet awards scholarships to local seniors …
Numerous awards were presented at the recent Farm-City Banquet including the Male and Female “Youth of the Year” recipients, both of whom are students at PLAS.
The Male winner was Dawson Bradford, the son of Dr. David Bradford and Melissa Bradford. The Female Recipient was Pike senior Allyn Wilson.
The outstanding youth award winners each receive a $1,500 Pike County Farm-City Scholarship and a nice plaque.
The main goal of Farm-City is to deepen understanding of the relationship between rural farmers and urban workers through a variety of programs held throughout the year.
Also attending the banquet were Jan and Robin Sullivan. Robin has served many years as the chairman of the Pike County Commission and played a leading role in bringing Rex Lumber’s $70 million plant to our county several years ago, among other projects that show the economic importance of the agriculture sector to our county.
P.S. I appreciate Robin and Jan being early subscribers to the new Troy Citizen!
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Mariah Carey fans …
Several of my long-time friends and current and former Trojans enjoyed a “girls night out” recently when they attended Maria Carey’s “ChristmasTime” concert in Atlanta.
Before the show, someone snapped a photo which was posted by Cammie Taylor Loving on Facebook (a photo which now goes global at The Troy Citizen.)
Enjoying pre-concert fellowship were (left to right): Joanna Brantley Kilpatrick, Sandy Huggins Lee, Kelly Mattox, Renee Lambert Shelley, Janie English and Cammie Taylor Loving.
(Thanksgiving Note: Sandy Huggins Lee, a classmate of mine and one of my favorite people, was the very first paid subscriber to The Troy Citizen.)
According to this article, the 55-year-old Carey - “the self-proclaimed 'Queen of Christmas' - performed a setlist of 26 songs in a 90-minute concert in which she vocalizes a mix of holiday classics with modern twists and her greatest hits.
“The pop star announced the Mariah Carey's Christmas Time Tour in August to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her mega-holiday-hit, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which is dubbed “the most popular holiday song in the world.”
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Troy Hosts Southern Miss to Close Out Season
Troy closes out its 2024 season Saturday when it hosts Southern Miss at The Vet on Senior Day; kickoff between the Trojans and Golden Eagles is slated for 1 p.m.
The Trojans have won two of their last three games and look to continue their momentum into the offseason with what would be a fourth straight victory over Southern Miss (1-10, 0-7 SBC). In fact, Troy (3-7, 2-5) has won four of the last five meetings against Southern Miss, after the Golden Eagles won seven of the initial eight contests.
Despite the loss at league-leading Louisiana last week, the Trojans continued to show their late-season resurgence on offense, putting up 30 points on the Cajuns' defense.
Troy ranks 21st nationally in November, averaging 448.7 yards of total offense, and the Trojans are averaging 8.86 points per quarter over their last 3.5 games after posting 4.5 points per quarter in the first 30 frames of the season.
Troy will honor 13 seniors prior to the game who will play for the final time at The Vet: Raymond Cutts, Gerald Green, Landon Parker, Brendan Jackson, Damaje Yancey, Cecil Powell, Anthony Butler, Robert Cole, Daniel King, Caleb Chappell, Tavon Matthews, Will Spain and Terry Thomas.
Southern Miss is in a period of transition after head coach Will Hall was dismissed a month ago, and offensive coordinator Chip Long followed two weeks later.
The Golden Eagles have just five touchdown passes on the season and are averaging 14.8 points per game. On the other side of the football, Southern Miss is yielding 36.5 points and 229.6 rushing yards per game.
Notable:
Devonte Ross needs 27 receiving yards to become the sixth player in program history to reach 1,000 yards in a season; he needs 197 yards and 14 catches to set the single-season records.
Troy ran a season-high 78 plays at Louisiana, one week after a then season-high 73 plays at Georgia Southern. The Trojans have topped the 70-play in four straight games; the Trojans had run 58 or fewer plays in four of the previous six games.
Big plays have been key to Troy's success offensively, the Trojans have scored on 9.38 percent of its drives (6-of-64) without a big play (any pass of 15+ yards/rush of 12+ yards) … have scored on 66 percent of drives with a big play (36-of-54).
Devonte Ross (17) and Damien Taylor (9) are responsible for 53.1 percent of Troy's plays of 20-plus yards this season.
• Troy ranks six nationally in 3rd downs ... the Trojans have been successful on 49.7 percent of its third downs; Troy has been balanced on third down, running 50.34 percent of the time and passing 49.66 percent of the time.
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I remember that sign!
Janie Nichols recently sent me this photo of the sign that was on the front of the original Troy Citizen building. (Our office later became an orthodonist’s office and is now the home of Blue Key Real Estate next door to the long-time location of Synco Drugs).
Janie said she “found this sign tucked into one our barns after my parents passed away. My parents were Hank and Diane LaFountaine in China Grove - they did painting, remodeling, and other building work. I figured they were redoing the building of the old Troy Citizen and had to take down the sign.”
The original Troy Citizen published its first edition in the late summer/early fall of 1995 - right before Hurricane Opal hit and not long after the verdict in the O.J. Simpson case was announced.
The first edition was delayed a week because of Troy’s non-friend, Ms. Opal.
The first edition included two pages of “Opal photos.” It was hard for many people to get or find their paper because the curb-areas of many residential yards were covered with mountains of tree limbs and cut-up fallen trees.
(Thank you to everyone who has already subscribed to the re-booted on-line Troy Citizen. Subscriptions are available for no charge. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Also, as always, “Thanks for sharing.” - Bill Rice, Jr.)
Michael DiChiara added this apt remembrance in a Facebook post:
“Come on here and tell us your name, you a good looking athlete! Who’s your mamma and daddy? How much you bench?”
It would be interesting one day to come up with a list of former CHHS players who went on to play at Troy State/Troy University.
I was a sophomore on the 1980 CHHS State Championship team. That team had three players who later signed scholarships to play at Troy State - Willie Collins, Jerry Beverly and Paul Shiver.
Joey Dennison started off at North Alabama (I think) but transferred to Troy and started as a guard for several years and played on a Division II National title team with Willie.
My classmate Gary Rumph had a good career at Troy State as a defensive lineman.
The best basketball player I remember playing for Troy State was Derrick Fayson, Shelia and Tim's older brother. Tim later played for Coach Maestri.